Eye for Design Review

Platform: PC
ESRB: RP
Number of Players: 1
Publisher: Sandlot Games
Release Date: 5/12/2008
Official Website
Writer: Dawn

Rating: 6.5

Basic Idea as I See it: In Eye for Design, players help Halle, a recent design school grad, to build her own business and reputation as a designer by decorating homes, that range from one room apartments to multi-room mansions, for some persnickety clients. Before each home, players are presented with a description of the client, their needs and interests, and any special items or features they might want worked in to the design. Goals are revealed for each room as to how many of which type and/or color items should go inside. Once all goals are completed, the door opens to the next room (although maximum points or ranking are not necessarily achieved. “Secret” clues are given in all caps to denote a particular goal each room must include in order to receive top ranking (platinum). When all required rooms are completed to a certain standard in a home, players unlock a bonus room where they are free to place items wherever they wish and a “photo” of the room gets added to their portfolio.

[b]Graphics:[/b]
The colors work nicely with each other in this game. The actual graphics are fine. There isn’t really anything special about how the game looks…it’s bright and cheerful, and there is a lot to work with. It is sometimes difficult to tell where exactly an item is going to land when placed, or whether or not they really end up against a wall. In rooms where there are only certain places things can go, the outlines light up green on the floor in the room and occasionally furniture jumps to the wrong – or unintended – spot. Also, the more difficult rooms don’t always appear functional or aesthetically pleasing when the only goal is to cram all the required furniture inside. Overall, not too bad, but a little frustrating. Ooh, but I do like the cursor and the main character.

[b]Sounds:[/b]
The music in the game started out fun…but one of the recurring songs or melodies did get old for me pretty quick, even to be turned down in the background. One, though, stayed quite listenable. I think that’s because it was more subtle. Click sounds are pretty fair, signifying picking up and dropping or removing all made sense. One sound seemed negative, but didn’t necessarily signify a wrong move, just a change, which was quite confusing in the beginning especially, until I learned to just ignore it…bummer.

[b]Controls: [/b]
This game uses both mouse buttons. Mostly, the left click button controls picking up, changing colors, moving, dropping, etc., which wasn’t always the most accurate. The right click button removes items easily from the room. That nice feature tripped me up a few times, just because in my head the right click means I am going to change something. This didn’t cause major problems. It really only mattered when a certain number of steps were allowed or “speed” (which meant no changes once an item was placed) mattered as a secret goal. But, luckily for me – and not just because of that control issue – restarting a room is easy and seemingly infinitely available.

[b]Flow:[/b]
Players are ranked on the bronze, silver, gold, platinum scale as they finish rooms, homes, and neighborhoods. Once I realized all I had to do was complete a room with its secret goal to reach platinum, that’s all I would settle for. This did interfere a little with the flow of the game with constantly restarting certain challenges, but I will chalk that up to operator liability. Other than that, the game flowed fairly. The rooms in homes didn’t necessarily grow more difficult, but homes within neighborhoods seemed to increase in the number of rooms at least, and neighborhoods seemed to increase in the number of homes. Some of the challenges I found difficult wouldn’t necessarily trip up others, so it’s tough to say whether or not the actual clients got tougher in their demands. I did expect the styles of furniture to change more than they did, and perhaps abilities, like changing the color of the room, should have increased instead of diminished. Having said that, the flow of the game was not a problem. It made sense and was easy to understand. Finish this, unlock that.

[b]Fun Factor:[/b]
I think my expectations for this game interfered with my personal fun factor. Initially, I was taken with the main character as well as her frenchie assistant. She dances around her office on the main menu screen, how can that not be fun?? As I tried to perfect levels, having to restart rooms often when speed mattered, and they were not coming out pretty or in a way that made sense to me, the game turned into more of a chore. I suppose if you can be creative and not take it personally, this game would be more fun. That is just not me, really. I expected more variety of items to work with, and I was surprisingly disappointed when I wasn’t able to change colors of rooms anymore.

[b]Female Aspect: [/b]
The main designer is female, and she is cute, professional, and edgy in her look, without the focus being on her figure or perfect features. The clients seem to be pretty balanced between the genders, and all pretty interesting characters to boot!

[b]Replay Value:[/b]
This depends on how the game goes the first time through. I don’t feel any desire to beat my high score, and since I can go back to specific levels before I finish to attempt platinum, there is really no other reason to. And without the satisfaction of rooms coming out how I would like them to, there isn’t the playing it just for fun reason, either.

I can see how it could have been better – and I really wanted it to be. Take it or leave it – online.